Apple TV

Yup, I’m back again with another round of Apple-bashing…and this time, it’s the not-so-hyped-up AppleTV.

I 'm not sure why this caught my attention, but I guess there were two main reasons:
a) I’ve heard about it but wasn’t sure what it was and
b) because of the recent price slash Apple made

For the uninitiated, AppleTV is a device that allows you to seamlessly connect your existing tv to the internet and take advantage of Apple’s Online store to purchase or rent movies, tv shows, podcasts, even music, and play them out on your very own big screen. Watch what you want to from the comfort of your couch: the wide world of online content was no longer tied to your PC or the 3” screen of your iPod.

At least, that was the idea.

I think the biggest flaw developers failed to overlook is the fact that apart from bringing online content onto a TV screen (which is quite readily available on your PC without all this); it doesn’t do much else….at least, not enough to justify its €229 (slashed from € 299) price tag.

To top things off, you are paying for the broadband separately. Remember, the AppleTV is just hardware – to get it to work, you’d also have to subscribe to high-speed broadband.
Of course, this may not be a huge problem for most people, but the idea of needing something additional just to get something else to work is annoying me.
I mean, I have wireless broadband that gives me 5gigs a month…which is okay for most of my needs but why would I wanna get something that eats up my bandwidth AND needs my credit card to work too? Which brings me to my other point:

Apart from the videos on YouTube, there isn’t much you could see for free. And even though movie rentals are priced quite sensibly, no one really wants to swipe their credit cards every time they wanna watch TV.

And judging by the way the sales figures are looking, I’m not wrong. So while this might have been a good idea in theory, bringing online content on TV is an idea that just doesn’t seem to ‘click’ with the customers.

10 comments:

Hari Vishnu said...

hmm.. good observation..

even the apple iPod has so many counterparts that are in no way inferior in quality or looks.. maybe even better.. theres this Chinese model especially thats made to imitate the iPod model..and wats best, theyre all way way cheaper..

the iPod even is definitely overpriced.. the only reason it sells is brand name and advertisement.. probably this one will sell for the same reason..

Anonymous said...

You are bang-on on this one ARN.

Even though AppleTV is designed to be a convenience, it does hit hard on one's wallet.

It is only a matter of time that Apple-mania will die and that Apple will have to rethink it's business model.

Seth Godin wrote a while back how today's digital business model is flawed and overpriced.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Hari
yup, but I gotta admit, the iPod just maybe an exception to this.
In my place the pod is cheaper than the other products of Sony, Creative and Archos.
(Of course, the Chinese are no comparision!)
I myself went from being an iPod-hater (read the original post here) to being an iPod owner (over here) in less than a year!

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Jaffer

Well the AppleTV might have been a bad idea, but I'm not too sure if the whole business model needs re-doing.
Remember, the guys at Apple were the first to bring in the mouse, GUI, fancy fonts and a whole lot of stuff (before the guys at MS ripped them :)

Arun Sundar said...

Watever we say, the word 'Cool' goes perfectly with only Apple, aint it?!

Nirmal said...

hey good one bro..

apple is famous for its stylish looks and huge bill......

Unknown said...

I absolutely hate iTunes!!!
x(

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@arun
"Cool" is an understatement. Gorgeous is more like it :D

@nirmal's blog
Yup.
Let's face it; no other manufacturer gives you a flatter, or more shiny or sexy-looking product...even if it isn't worth the money!

@alok
I don't blame ya.
The fact that you can only put stuff on your iPod from iTunes drives me nuts

morinn said...

I've never heard of the Apple TV before and there's a good reason for that, its sale in my country would have been nil. We don't have enough bandwidth speed to surf the net properly, so for watching movies, that'll take like forever! And then it's not worth it, like you said to only watch youtube videos.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@morinn
Actually, I didn't hear abt this for a long time either.:D

Bandwidth is a major issue - I really don't think there can be even a teeny-weeny market in a country that's low on bandwidth